Recently, I’ve been reading about John the Baptist. He truly is a curious character. Before Jesus came to be baptized, the Pharisees sent Jewish priests to ask John who he was. He responded with the words of Isaiah “I am the voice calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” Can you imagine the boldness of that statement? He stands before the Jewish leaders and tells them that he is fulfilling a several hundred year old prophesy. I’m surprised they didn’t arrest him on the spot. They must have just thought he was a lunatic, and who could blame them. The man’s diet consisted of locusts and honey. John the Baptist knew his identity, and he knew his purpose. The Bible tells us that John’s purpose was to bear witness and testify concerning Jesus. It was his job to signal to the world who the Messiah is, and that’s exactly what he did.
If there was ever a man that was assured of his purpose it was John. He doesn’t hesitate to shout out when he sees Jesus saying “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” When John baptizes Jesus he visibly sees the Spirt of God come down from heaven and remain on Jesus. Then he hears the audible voice of the Father proclaim, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” When I imagine how that scene must have unfolded, I can’t see how you could possible have any doubt in your mind that Jesus was the Savior. Yet, a short while later, John finds himself doubting.
When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
Matthew 11:2-5
As I expressed in my previous blog, I’m praying for things that I’ve never prayed for before. I’m praying for God to speak to me clearly about the people he wants me to minister to. I’m praying for Prophesy. I’m praying for dreams, visions, and healing. I’m praying for miracles. I’m praying for supernatural ministry. I keep things simple and preach Christ crucified, but I’m trying to “eagerly desire the greater gifts.” And so today, I feel a little bit like John. I have some stories to share with you all, but I don’t know what to make of them. I’ve been asking for these things to happen, and yet I can’t say with complete certainty that these were answers to those prayers. I get worried that what I’m experiencing has a completely natural cause. I never know if people are telling me the truth. Maybe I lack faith. That sucks, because without faith it’s impossible to please God. Maybe I’m like doubting Thomas. Maybe I’m too cautious of claiming the miracles that I’ve witnessed. Perhaps I’ve seen the undeniable finger of God, and then like John I ask “was that you, or should I be expecting even greater?” In any case, I’m in new territory so I want to be as simple and factual as I can be with all of you. I’m not in the business of manipulating; I’m in the business of seeking Truth. I’ll will continue to ask for more, and I will keep you updated!
Now, here are my stories…
Lindsey’s Knee
At our first squad debrief in Costa Rica, after a night of worship with all 39 of our squad members, Lindsey spoke up and told us that she was having knee problems. Even though it made her uncomfortable to ask for prayer, she wanted us to all come together to pray for her knee. So we did. It came as a bit of a shock when she told us that it was, well, healed. I’ll let her tell the story. Click on this link to read here blog about what happened. God Still Heals Today!
Los Guido Prayer Walk and The Man in the Orange Shirt
When we arrived at our ministry in Costa Rica our first couple of days were pretty slow because we were waiting for a formal introduction to the principal of our school. So as a team we decided that we wanted to walk around the neighborhood and pray for the city and its people. Before heading out we prayed as a team that the Holy Spirit show us who he wanted us to talk to. We prayed for visions, words, whatever He was pleased to show us. Then He answered. Even more surprising, he answered me. It wasn’t super dramatic, but all of the sudden in my mind’s eye I saw a clear scene unfolding with a man in a bright orange shirt and a terrible limp walking down the street. My teammate Sydney wrote a series of two excellent blogs describing what happened next. She told the story so well, that I won’t retell it here. Check out her blog for the rest of the story:
2) The Man in the Orange Shirt
Keri’s Kidney Stones
In Costa Rica, I woke up with a start as one of my squad leaders shook my shoulders at 5:00AM in the morning. My squad-mate Keri was in excruciating pain and she needed to get medical help immediately. I was asked to come along and translate during the process. After a long series of issues with the doctors and misdiagnoses. We finally got the result – kidney stones. Literally the moment that she walks into the room to get an ultrasound, the stones dissolve. You can read her blog here. Miracles Happen
The 1.5 Day Headache
In Nicaragua, my teammates and I battled quite a bit of illness. At one point during the month I had a throbbing headache that just wouldn’t go away. It was getting progressively worse. After a 1.5 days of dealing with this headache I had had enough. One of my teammates offered to pray for my headache, and I accepted. I didn’t feel any relief while he was praying for me. It was still throbbing along. So, I got up to continue going about my work and within two minutes the headache was completely gone. I took the next hour off and worshipped God in our backyard. I was ecstatic that my head was no longer in pain.
A Gift of Languages
One day on the bus coming home from San Jose I met a man with an extremely peculiar story. He was telling me how he grew up in Los Guido and he never made it past the 5th grade. Sadly, he got involved in cocaine and the trafficking lifestyle. During his darkest hour he was a bum on the street with no one to turn to. His mom told him he needed to get help and go to church. So one day he decided to walk to a church and just stand in the doorway. While he was standing there the pastor, whom he had never met before, called him by name to come to the front of the church. The pastor told him that God had revealed to him that he had a gift of languages. That evening the churched prayed for him and he slowly turned his life around. An opportunity opened up for him to travel to Germany. He told me that he got off of the plane and without ever hearing a word of German in his life he started speaking in fluent German. This happens every time he travels to a new country. I had him clarify. I asked, “you mean you learn languages really quickly, right?” No, the moment someone starts speaking the language around him, he just knows it. He demonstrated it to me on the bus as he spoke in English, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Italian. He translates for missions groups when they come to Costa Rica. Want to take a guess at what his new day job is? Tour guide, duh. He gives all of the glory to God, reminding me that he never even made it past the 5th grade.
That was pretty weird. Then, not a week later, I meet a second person who related a similar story to me. This person wasn’t gifted at speaking any language they heard. But they told me about a time when a language barrier was preventing them from sharing the gospel, and then suddenly they were able to speak in a second language to convey their message.
I started joking with my team about it. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if that happened to one of us when we hit Asia. Then I started getting the crazy idea of actually praying for it. So now we’re all praying for Brittany Neal to spontaneously learn the Malaysian language next month. We’ve been praying for about two months now. Obviously, I let you know if it happens.
Limp Outside the Mall
Cody and I have been spending a lot of time praying for people in the city parks this month. One of the first days out we met a young man limping around the outside of the mall. We asked him what was wrong with his leg. He told us that he had broken it 5 months previously and it was still painfull and giving him a lot of problems. He allowed us to pray for his leg. When we finished praying he got really startled and looked up at us and said “it’s gone. The pain is all gone.” That was a crazy way to start the month.
The Man Searching for Glasses
One day while praying for people in the park, a man came up to us asking for money. This happens probably 20 times everyday. He told us that he needed to buy glasses so that he could read. We kindly told him that we don’t give away money, but that we would love to pray for him if he’d let us. He agreed. While we were praying for him he told me that he felt like an ice cube was being rubbed over his eyes. He opened up a book and started reading it, without glasses. Satisfied, he lead us in a prayer thanking God. Then he left.
“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
James 1:16-17
